Dear Joshua,
I have a close friend who has cancer and I'm very motivated to help her come into alignment with her inner self because I believe this will cure her and set her on the path she intended for this lifetime. So I share what I know and share your books and teachings. This is very satisfying for me and I've seen a big transformation in her overall attitude and perspective on life and it has brought us closer. She can see how the cancer was a "wake up" call.
But this also has brought up a lot of questions for me. The cancer is happening to her, but I'm experiencing her with cancer in my reality. I choose my reality, so did I choose to experience the version of her who has cancer? If so, do I also have the power to choose to experience the version of her who joyously cures herself of cancer? That would bring me much joy...
Thanks!
Steve
Dear Steve,
You are still thinking of reality in a way that is a bit backwards. It is not the purpose of the conditions to make you feel good or bad, sad or joyous, it's you who must choose how you feel in the midst of the conditions. Most humans think that the conditions make them feel a certain way. They don't understand that it is their perception of reality that allows them the choice of how they feel. It is your limited judgement of things either good or bad, that you think makes you feel good or bad. But the conditions are neutral and you always, always choose how you feel because you can always, always see the positive or the negative aspects of any condition.
You can choose to look at your friend's condition and see that it is bad. You have some strange fear that she might die as a result of her disease and that makes you feel bad. If that makes you feel bad it's because 1) you're choosing to see what you would consider to be the negative aspects over the positive aspects, and 2) you have a limiting belief based in fear.
Let's talk about number one; you choose to see what you consider to be negative aspects. Now there are no negatives or positive in this condition unless, by your attention to it, you flesh them out. You must first create the aspects to look at and then you must decide to judge them good or bad, wrong or right. So what are the possible negative aspects of the cancer? We can't see any so we will have to try an imagine what a limited perspective would be. Here's one; the person with the cancer might die. Again we can't really see this as a negative because there in no death so that's sort of impossible, but we can understand how your limited perception of reality might fool you into believing this and since you think death is bad, you consider this to be the worst-case scenario. But we know that you no longer believe that death is bad (unless the one dying is someone close to you) so what else could be bad about the condition? We don't know. Really, we can't see any negative aspects.
All we see is that the condition brought the person to a place where she can examine her life and finally start seeing it for what it really is. The cancer allowed her to believe that there was more to this reality. It has the potential to make her change her perspective and pursue what is wanted rather than complaining about what is. It has the potential to bring her focus on being who she really is rather than living such a limited and safe experience of life.
The second point is that you feel negative emotion when you think of her situation and you think that when her condition changes, you'll feel better. You want her condition to change so that you feel joy. If you felt joy, that would be an indication of a beneficial belief. But since you feel negative emotion when you think of her, you are experiencing fear. So what is your fear? Do you fear dying yourself? Do you fear your friend's death? You can't die, your friend can't die, and you cannot lose your friend, so there is nothing to fear.
Remember that it is you who can choose to feel either good or bad. The conditions are neutral. They are irrelevant. They don't matter. You choose what to look at and how to perceive it and you choose how you want to feel. Stop allowing the conditions to make you feel good or bad. Start insisting that you feel good in the face of any condition and you will have aligned with who you really are and what you really want.
Don't feel bad for your friend. This is the best thing that could have happened for her. She was not going to see the light otherwise. She would never have listened to your nutty explanation of the mechanism of physical reality otherwise. It made her listen. It's making her think for the first time. It's making her use her focus to come into alignment for the first time. She may not choose to completely change her life, but she might. Either way, the cancer was the best thing that ever happened to her. If she is able to change her perspective, one day she will tell you the same thing.
Joshua
